Rhupert Carvolo
Whereas some mercenaries sell their services in pursuit of gold or the thrill of battle, Rhupert Carvolo walks the world in a haze of regret and song. The “Piper of Sorrows” has heavy eyes so filled with loss that to meet them is to be drawn into an abyss. Within the ephemera of his tunes, however, lies a power beyond simple explanation: the piper’s mournful lamentations can freeze men’s hearts in fear, infuse them with barely contained energy, or summon mists of palpable dread. To those who first meet him, Rhupert Carvolo seems as traveled and road-weary a mercenary as has ever walked the lands of Caen. Solemn and quiet except while playing his pipes or relating tales from history, Carvolo makes good enough company and possesses a quick, wry wit. But in truth, he is a man caught between worlds. Even as he moves from battle to battle, Rhupert’s heart and spirit are trapped in Urcaen with those he loved and lost. He is made whole only through the music that gives shape to the sorrow in his soul. Many believe Carvolo’s talent to be a singular expression of the Gift, an inborn talent for sorcery fueled by grief and loss. The priests of Menoth consider his tunes to be prayers to the Creator. The men who follow Rhupert into battle often lose themselves in his haunting melodies, a dispassionate courage born not of youthful exuberance or a sense of patriotic purpose, but of a visceral and mournful surrender to their own mortality. When not engaged in battle, Carvolo is a common sight at the mercenary camps that litter western Immoren as he wanders the southern kingdoms of Cygnar and Ord and sometimes even the Protectorate of Menoth. He asks for little more than enough coin to keep him fed—except when he finds an army preparing to fight Khador. On these occasions the piper will dispense with even this meager fee and work for nothing more than food and shelter. Carvolo’s hatred for Khador is well known, and his ever-present anguish is certainly tied to that nation. Few men have been present at so many of the momentous events of recent history, and Rhupert has become a respected chronicler of his times. Some soldiers cheer to hear their names in his tales, but listening carefully to his songs reveals a man weary of war. Each of his tunes is a variation on a common theme, that men are given mere moments upon Caen before even that is taken from them. Carvolo is a popular figure among the common soldiers, who ask him for sad and nostalgic songs. The camps he visits are somber for his presence, often with only his playing and the sobs of homesick soldiers breaking the silence. Carvolo himself prefers low dirges and laments. Such is the power of his unleashed sorrow that clammy fog rises from the ground and the dead themselves seem to reach out to comfort him. Nightmares haunt those who have heard Rhupert’s aching threnodies, as they suffer trying to reconcile the existence of such unimaginable loss.